The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-01
The Sunday School.
LESSON FOR JANUARY o, 1887.
BY REV. ROBERT T. POLK.
SIN AND DEATH.
[Genesis iii. 1-6; 1871
The GARDEN OF EDEN.

The Bible, which contains revelation of
God, and of the duty, interest and destiny of
man, is in substance and purport, an account
of the kingdom of GOD. And while in the
main the arrangement and history is consec-
utive and progressive, it is fragmentary and
sectional. 1t begins with an account of Gre
alton, which ends with the creation of man
in the image of the Creator, who is COP the
Father This is followed by an account of
the beginning of human history, which is not
necessarily a second, complete and indepen-
dent, nor yet supplemental, history of Gre
alton.
When "JEHovAH fthe Eternally EXISTENT
COP had formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became living
SOUL" pictorial reinstatement of the creation
of man in the image of GoD,-He planted
garden eastward in Eden, and there He put
the man whom he had formed. In this gar
den He caused to grow every beautiful and
food producing tree, including the Tree of
Life, which was distinguished by its eminent
location in the middle of the garden and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In
this garden, man, whom He had created
"male and female the man and woman],
was placed to dress and keep it. OF every
tree in the garden they might freely eat, ex-
cept the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, which was forbidden on the
penalty of death.
Though the story of the Garden of Eden is
historical in the substance of its facts, it is
evidently in the form of an allegory. It is
history written in the style common to Orr
entail literature. 1t is pictorial account of
the origin of evil, and consequent human
misery, including, it may be, death by dis
ease and pain. The beautiful and luxuriant
garden may represent the primitive, innocent,
and, in very important and truly Biblical
sense, holy and happy state, in which man
was made in the image of COP. The human
soul, with its faculties and desires, and the
fruits of their exercise, may be represented:
the "charge to keep we have" The stree of
life" is elsewhere employed in the Scriptures
as a symbol of the divine blessings conse-
quent upon obedience and true holiness.
"To him that overcometh will give to eat of
the tree of life which is in the Paradise of
OOD \h6N6ldtlOu IL. J. Iuo lIuAb VI thO
tree of life" may be equivalent to "the fruits
of the spirit, love, JOY, peace" etc. (Gala-
tians v. 22), against which there is no law"
Tprohibition]. "The fruit of the tree of life"
and the fruits of the righteous appear to be
equivalent. "The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil" does not elsewhere appear in
the Bible. "They shall eat of the fruit of
their own way" proverbs l. 81; 81 will
bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their
thoughts Jeremiah vi. 49,; may be pas
sages which reflect somewhat the meaningo of
the symbol. The fruit of the tree of life"
may be the blessed experiences that attend a
soul living in communion with, and obedi-
ence to, COP; and the fruit of 'the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil" the expert
ence of wilful transgression of the Divine
law. Or the fruit of the tree may represent
simply the objects of human desire. The
lawful regulation and indulgence of all the
souls powers and desires increases the per-
manent joys of life, while wilful, unrestrain-
ed and excessive indulgence of some are cor
rupting, and bring sorrow and shame. The
real sorrows and ills of human life are the re-
suits of self indulgence and sin. The origin
of sin and suffering, and the story of self
indulgence is told in the Biblical tableau of
Paradise Lost"
1t is useless to attempt to locate upon the
earth this Garden of Eden, for it is rhetoric
al and not geographical one. Its geograph-
ical location according to the description of
the story, is impossible. However the early
home of the race may be sufficiently designat-
ed by the geographical references in the story
The experiences of primitive man, represent
ed in the story, occurred somewhere upon the
face of the earth. The highlands of Arme-
MIA, in the midst of the finest portion of the
Biblical lands, appear to be designated by
the rivers and countries mentioned in the de-
scription, as ''the cradle of the race" the
home of our first parents, and the scene of
all their early experiences, and whence the
earth has been populated.